Materia
by Micster
Summary: My epic fanfic. After Meteor much of the world is in turmoil, but whoever controls the supply of materia, controls the world. New charachters and new challenges await our heros. Slightly dark at times.
1. Meteor and Aftermath

Materia

Materia

A Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction

By Micster

This is my first Fanfiction so please have a read and review. 

Disclaimer: As is traditional I have to state that I own none of the original characters, locations etc. used in the FFVII game. Those are all owned by Square and are used without consent but for no profit. Yellow 'light' materia is my idea. 

****

Prologue: Meteor

Cloud Strife and his party was thrown backwards and forwards as their ship was thrown about by the winds. The remains of the highwind were not holding out well against the supernatural storm generated by the battle between Meteor and Holy. 

In the disarray, no one noticed Cloud's pack tear open and spill its contents out onto the deck. All eyes were focused on the awesome scene unfolding before them, all of the adventurers were hoping and praying that holy would save the day. The light was reflected in Cloud's mako eyes as he griped the rail at the side of the ship tightly. 

"Come on," he murmured through gritted teeth. 

He was knocked over as Yuffie fell into him. 

"Sorry." Yuffie was far too worried to add her usual "Gawd" at the end. 

Cloud got back to his feet. He urged holy on with all of his willpower, if it failed to stop meteor, then all that he and his friends had done would have been in vain. 

__

Fighting Shinra all over the world, 

Training against various strange creatures, 

All of their questing for materia and weapons, 

The epic final battles with Sephiroth, 

Aeris's ultimate sacrifice, 

All of it would be wasted if meteor succeeded in striking the planet. No life would survive this time. As the lifestream began to converge from all of the parts of the planet and light the sky with a new colour to add to the red of meteor and the white of holy, a name and a face flashed through Cloud's head. 

__

"Aeris."

Under the red, white and green glows the three pieces of materia were invisible as they rolled from Cloud's bag and fell off of the side of the ship, lost in the air and falling towards the ground. 

~ ~ ~

The rags that Iona Versalis wore were were torn and she was bleeding from shrapnel from the battlefield of Midgar. Her long bright red hair was in a mess and her bright mako eyes were clouded behind tears. She had left it late to leave; now she was regretting her decision. The moans of the injured around her were working on her mind. 

She stumbled on, away from Meteor. It had taken everything she had. Not that Iona had much to begin with. She was just a bright but poor girl from the sector 4 slums in her early twenties. Her family had always been poor as far back as she could remember. 

She turned to face the Armageddon behind her again. A scream formed in her mind as she thought of her parents, trapped beneath the rubble of their measly home. She had taken her younger brothers and began to run. She knew then that it was pointless. When meteor hits, it doesn't matter where you are. Around her people stood and stared up at their impending annihilation. They waited for death, there was nowhere to run or hide. 

The tornadoes were beginning to form as Iona tried to force her was through the crowds of panicking people that were making last minute dashes for the exits. 

"I don't want to die!" screamed her younger brother above the roar of the wind and the crowds. He was only about twelve and had large eyes that never failed to get people to do things for him. Now he was being genuine for once. "I'm too young to die, Iona, do something!" 

She remembered looking back at Roan's eyes. She felt helpless to save her brother. There was only one way out now. She grimaced at the memory of what she had done. "Close your eyes Roan, you too Quinn." Quinn closed his blue eyes tight and Roan put his hands over his eyes. They had no idea what their sister was planning but didn't want to disobey her. Her tone of voice scared them; they had never heard her speak like that before. 

She unsheathed her sword, muttered for forgiveness and began to hack her way through the crowd of panicking civilians. Most of them had already gone insane and were rushing about blindly, those with more sense moved out of her way. Her control was excellent and she moved quickly thanks to her speed plus materia. She didn't want to kill anyone, but this was the only way that she and her brothers were going to escape the city in time. 

'What have I become?' she asked herself now. 

"Follow my voice!" she had shouted to them. 

The two boys followed behind her, she turned to check if they were okay. And made a terrible mistake. Her sword hit a frightened little girl, slashing her across the chest, The girl looked about seven or eight and let out a quick scream before dropping dead. Iona felt sad, but carried on. 

"Shirley!" 

Iona looked to the side to see a middle-aged man sobbing over the body of the child. His uniform and sword marked him out as a member of SOLDIER, the former army of the Shinra corporation. "You will pay for this! I will end your existence before that damned meteor can!" 

He drew a sword and began to fight his way over to her. Dead bodies littered the ground everywhere as the man was consumed by bloodlust. "You killed my only daughter, my last reason to try to run," he sobbed as he came up to Iona. 

"Roan, Quinn, LOOK OUT!" 

It was too late, she saw the image of Roan's head, hands still held over his eyes as the sword struck it, his blood was added to the river already on the ground. The horrifying image ran through her eyes a few more times. 

"NOOO!" 

Quinn saw this and ran off into the crowd, the fear was all too clear in his eyes. The small by with short black hair was soon lost amidst the chaos. Iona cursed herself; she had only undertaken these drastic measures to save her brothers, now Roan was dead. 

"QUINN!" she screamed, but he was long gone. 

Roan was dead, her parents were dead and Quinn was lost. It was just her and the man amidst the crowd of terrified people. The roar of Meteor was deafening, conversation was now impossible, Iona had nothing to say anyway. Her whole world had been destroyed in the last few hours and she tried to clutch to her own sanity as she focused at the man standing in front of her. In the centre of the city on top of the plate, the forces were strong enough to tear buildings apart; remnants of the Shinra headquarters were raining down around her. The ground shook especially strongly as the pillar holding up the place above sector 3 began to crumble. 

Lost amidst this she saw that she had cleared a path to the gate out of the city. She turned and ran. 

And ran. 

And ran. 

So here she was. Her sword hung weakly by her side the blood slowly drying. What had she done? Iona dropped her sword and fell to her scarred knees. She lifted back her head and shouted to the sky, 

"What have I done?" 

She had thought nothing mattered, everyone was about to die anyway, but then holy had appeared. The strong white glow now lit up the fields. 'What is this?' she had thought. Now that she had damned herself the world might not end after all? Could all those people she had just killed have gone on to live if she had not killed them? Were their deaths needless? 

Now she held up her hands and could see that they were also stained with blood. In her misery she looked over to see the city being torn up ever more then before. The shock made Iona stand up and stare at the new development open mouthed. This new power didn't care about the city or the people; it was only interested in protecting the planet. It didn't care about her or her brother; she would still have died if it weren't for her regrettable actions. She would have still been inside the city, being buffeted by winds or roasted alive. Iona looked and saw where she had fought her way out of the city; a building collapsed onto the panicking crowd and mutilated bodies. 

A new colour suddenly began to emerge from the ground, one of the Mako reactors exploded at that point and suddenly everything was green. 

Iona looked at her sword where she had cast it aside, her pink 'speed plus' materia and yellow 'light' materia were still in their slots. Both were very low levels and were the family's most valuable possessions, reminders of better times for her parents. 

'But now they have gone. Off to heaven or to join the lifestream or whatever happens to the mind when someone dies.' 

As the green tendrils merged with holy and Meteor began to crack, Iona held her breath. She had not been able to run very far before she ran out of breath so was close enough to feel the heat as the holy/lifestream team destroyed meteor. 

In the sudden silence that followed Iona and all of the survivors around her were in shock, had meteor really just been destroyed? 

Iona heard three soft thuds behind her but ignored them, then there was a sudden spontaneous cheer from all of the survivors. Everyone was singing and dancing. 

__

"It's finally over!"

"Meteor is no more!" 

"Rejoice!" 

"We survived! What was that thing that saved us?" 

"Three cheers for the lifestream!" 

Iona stood there, unable to join in their celebrations. The sky cleared and the full extent of the damage became visible. She could not smile while the blood of innocents was on her hands, especially for her selfish motives of her and her brothers' survival. 

'I must make up for my crimes,' she thought. 'I will not be able to rest until I have made up for what I have done. 

Then her eyes spotted the three pieces of materia that had landed next to her sword; she picked them up and examined them. 

One was green, 

One was clear, 

And one was red. 

****

Chapter One: Aftermath

****

Barret Wallace stared open mouthed at the scene of devastation that lay before them. 

"I hated Midgar, Shinra and their %&*#ing mako reactors," he announced to his friends. "But even I realised that blowing up the no.1 reactor was not the right way to go about sortin' the problem out. This," he pointed to the ruins with his gunarm. "Is far worse then anything we ever did." 

The group had made their way over from their crash site towards the city. Cloud Strife noticed that the once barren expanse that went on for miles in all directions from the city was now punctured with small clumps of grass. He picked up a piece of metal that was lying on the ground beside him. Through the grime he could just make out a few words: 'Shinra corporation – Mako reactor no.3.' 

"We have to go down there and help the survivors," announced Tifa Lockheart. 

"I know we should do something, but…" They all turned to face Yuffie Kisargi, the youngest and most energetic of their small and strange group. 

"Don't we deserve a rest or something, we did just save the world and all, you guys?" Cloud glared at her. 

"Look these people are in trouble, they need help," reasoned their leader. 

"We need to get them food, shelter and medical supplies," began Nanaki already thinking ahead. "We have to split up and try to muster help from across the world, it would probably be best for us to all head back to our home towns." 

"But these people need help now," added Tifa, gesturing at the milling crowd of refugees. "I'm going to see what I can do with my restore materia. How about it Cloud?" 

They all turned to Cloud. 

"I have no real home town anymore anyway," Vincent Valentine added. 

Cloud looked at all of their waiting faces, and felt glad that he was the leader of the group. "Fine, we'll split up to try to organise teams to help the survivors. All of you head for your home towns, Barret stop by the Gold Saucer too, Cait Sith or Reeve you sort out Junon and Vincent, go to Costa del sol." Cloud imagined an image of Vincent on a beech sunbathing, and almost laughed at how ludicrous it was. 

"Tifa and I will try to help the people here now, Niebleheim doesn't have the resources to help much." 

"The Chocobo stables are not far from here, you can ride on our chocobos," suggested Tifa. 

"Not those ^*#%ing birds again," moaned Cid Highwind, the captain of what had once been their ship. 

They all remembered the experiences Cid had had trying to raise and ride a chocobo of his own before they went off to fight Sephiroph. He had not had a very pleasant time of it, the chocobo was constantly pecking him and he used to fall off a lot when learning how to ride her. Now his Chocobo 'Shera' was being looked after by Tifa. 

The rest of the group agreed with Cloud's plan although Vincent was not very thrilled by his destination. 

Six figures headed off towards the East, following the trail of refugees in the direction of Kalm and the Chocobo stables, while two figures rushed down towards the city to help those in need. 

~ ~ ~

Iona had filled up the five spaces on her sword with her five pieces of materia and was now recognised as being 'in charge' of the new community. She was trying her best to help people, the mastered 'cure' and 'all' materia she had found were worth a fortune but she chose to use them to help the injured. She walked around the new town of tents made of clothing and old buildings located on the inside of what was once sector 4. All of the plates had fallen and so not much of the city was left, but the people were resourceful. This new town had been dubbed 'Neo-Midgar' but was in a far worse state then even the worst slums from old Midgar. 

As Iona saw the hundreds of people who she had saved by using her materia nestling in their new homes she called over her deputy. 

"Olton!" She watched as the dark man came running over to her. He was wearing a badly damaged suit and his glasses were bent out of shape. Despite this he was smiling. "Have there been any reports of my brother yet?"

"I'm afraid not Iona, all of the people here are keeping their eyes open for any sign of a boy matching the description you gave us but we are not finding anything." 

All of the people Iona has saved were very grateful, she was the first one to look for the injured and cast cure spells on them. Once she had encountered raiders and she and her party had to fight them off, so now her 'officers' all carried materia, for self-defence of course. 

This was thanks to the materia shop they had found. Iona was overjoyed at all of the 'cure' materia she had found and now they all felt safer wandering the streets looking for injured survivors. Now they could defend themselves properly. 

"Look at that!" Olton suddenly exclaimed. Iona turned to see what her favourite helper was pointing at. 

In a small clearing where no rubble had fallen a small flower was growing. Iona ran over to it. "A flower growing in Midgar? This is unheard of! Everyone have a look at this! This is a symbol of what we are aiming to achieve." 

A few people had gathered around their unofficial leader. The flower was small and sickly but was nevertheless alive. "This is truly a new age for the planet and all of its people. If a flower can grow in Midgar then anything is possible, let this symbol give you hope." 

Olton set up a small ring of wire from the debris and put it down around the flower. "It's beautiful," whispered one of the survivors. A few others turned and walked away, muttering 'sentimental rubbish.' While there was still a small crowd Iona made an announcement. 

"Everyone, I'm going off into sector 3 to search for more survivors, I'm leaving Olton in charge here." 

"Are you sure?" he asked concerned. "Do you want some bodyguards?" 

She smiled at him. "Don't worry, I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself. Besides I feel that you will need all of the help you can get against the raiders." 

Over recent days raiders had been becoming even more of a serious problem as people returned from the nearby countryside and found they had nothing. When large numbers of people feel they have nothing to loose in the ruins of a city with no force of law, no one was safe. 

"Well," he replied. "Good luck to you, we all hope to see you again soon. Come back okay, I still owe you my life." 

The reactions of the people Iona saved differed immensely. Most were very grateful. Iona introduced them to the fledgling community and let them decide what to do with their lives. Some were less grateful and wandered off. A sizeable number had gone mad from the experiences they had undergone. Most of these were depressed and would not stop crying or were paralysed and unable to do anything. Iona tried to organise other survivors to look after these but resources were running low and some were sceptical about the 'efficiency' of saving them. A few were actively violent towards her. As she was a proficient fighter she was able to knock them back down and cure herself. Some, like Olton who was one of the first she had saved, couldn't thank her enough and wanted to repay her. These became her 'officers'; she sent them out to help more injured people and gave them materia for the job. Some of these people were disloyal and ran off with the materia, but most felt a genuine gratitude towards the kind-hearted girl with long red hair. 

A few others had gathered to wish her a safe journey. "Don't worry," she responded. "I'll be fine, just look after yourselves and help others. I'll start up a new town in every sector, soon this area will be busy with life again." 

There were some heartfelt goodbyes as Iona walked away and disappeared round a corner. 

"Come on everyone, lets get back to work. It's what she wants so let's get to it!" 

~ ~ ~

As she walked along the remains of a once well walked path, dodging the concrete rubble and various steel wrecks scattered about the place, Iona examined the five pieces of materia on her sword. All of them were different colours and so made her sword look somewhat festive. She remembered what she had done with this very sword during a moment of panic a short while ago and shuddered, then turned back to the materia. One was clear, mastered 'all' materia which had fallen from the sky. She had used her only link to link it to her mastered green 'cure' materia also a gift from above. She now used them to cure many people at a time. The next piece was her yellow 'light' materia; she had not used it in a while as it was only useful for lighting the way in the dark. She knew that she would need it tonight though. Further along was her pink 'speed plus' materia, it was a low level so only gave her a minor boost but it had saved her life in the past. 

Finally her attention came to the red piece of materia on the last slot on her sword. Iona had never even seen a summon materia before, let alone used one but she knew all about them. This one seemed very powerful. 

She picked it out of her sword to examine it further, she closed her eyes for a moment and an unfamiliar name came into her mind. She had never heard of this summon before. 

__

'Knights of the Round'

So why does Iona have mako eyes?

This is the current First part. What do you think of it? Read and review or send an e-mail to [JohnWalker@hamptonhill.fslife.co.uk][1]

__

   [1]: mailto:JohnWalker@hamptonhill.fslife.co.uk



	2. Survivors

Chapter 2: The Survivors ****

Chapter 2: The Survivors

Cloud and Tifa stood together outside the entrance to what was once sector five. Tifa held tightly onto Cloud's hand, as the full extent of the damage to the city became visible directly before their eyes. 

During the battle between meteor and holy the immense energies fighting each other had brought down all of the plates. As almost all of Midgar was on or directly below a plate this had led to almost total destruction of the entire city. 

The pair had come to sector five as it was the closest to where they had landed and they were familiar with it, but the scene before them reminded them of the fate that befell sector seven only a few weeks ago. A discharge of energy had struck the centre of the plate and it had broken into three pieces as the support column gave way. The area in front of them had been crushed by one of the falling segments. The wall that once ran around the perimeter of the city was somewhere under the rubble at this point. 

"I don't think that there is any way in here," admitted Cloud. "Come on Tifa, we have to find another way in." 

Cloud began to walk around towards sector four but Tifa remained standing where she was, stoically facing forwards. "Cloud," she mumbled. "All of the other plates also fell, we could see that from a distance while we were approaching the city. If the results are anything like this there could be no survivors…" 

Cloud turned back to her and walked over. He put an arm over her shoulders to comfort her and began to talk. "Look Tifa, most of the people in the city saw that meteor was heading straight for them and left. When we were walking towards the city you saw how sector 4 looked; most of the plate had been torn of and thrown away from the city before the plate fell so only part of the sector had been crushed. The plate above sector 3 had been folded back on itself so only half of that sector had been crushed." 

"And the rest?" 

"I'm sure parts of the other sectors survived, maybe we should go and help some of the survivors who got out of the city at the last moment. There are plenty of people left to help, Tifa." He shook her gently to get her moving. "Come on." 

The pair moved slowly, huddled together. 

"Cloud," uttered Tifa suddenly. "The Shinra Corporation had bunkers built deep under the centre of the city during the Shinra/Wutai war, there could be people there too." 

"Most likely Shinra executives." 

"Yes but their company is gone, we have no grudge against them now. We can't let them die if they are trapped. Back when AVALANCHE was planning its first strike, Jesse was able to get the codes to open the bunkers. Barett kept them in his pack in case we ever needed them." 

Cloud thought for a moment. "Those officials probably have enough supplies to keep them going for a long time, we can help the people out here first and deal with them later." 

They carried on walking around the outside of the city. 

~ ~ ~

Delvin Spanton pulled back the reins on his mountain chocobo and brought it to a halt. He felt the stubble already growing on his chin with a dirty hand; it had been a week since he had last shaved. The chaos that ensued in Midgar before the meteor event had upset his regular life. 

The four riders behind him brought their yellow chocobos to a halt. "What you thinkin boss?" asked one of them. 

Delvin took his hat off to run a hand through his short and spiky black hair, and then he pointed towards the village of tents in sector four ahead of them. "You see that?" he asked. "Those people are likely to have a lot of supplies to keep a community like that running. We should gather the rest of the gang and go in there." 

The others looked at their leader. "If we get all the gang together that place should be a walkover." The five had all turned to lives as raiders for different reasons. For Delvin it had been the realisation that with Shinra gone there was no controlling force of law and order so he could do damn well what he pleased. He was one of the first ones, setting up his 'tribe' of raiders soon after the diamond weapon event, long before the fall of meteor. Now he was coming into his own, he felt that he was born to be a raider. 

"We'll go in tonight under the cover of darkness, come on let's get moving." The chocobo riders turned and headed back south towards their camp where fellow raiders were waiting for them. 

~ ~ ~

"It's no use sir, the door just won't open." The secretary slumped to the floor, her red suit stained with grease. "I'm no good at electronics, I cannot fix the problem. Unless we have some other plan we're stuck in here." 

The assembly of Shinra managers, secretaries and other high-ranking people from the top of the plate all searched around them for some solution to the problem. They were all exhausted and worried. They could feel the battle going on outside but had no idea what had happened. Now the third security door was stuck, the electronics had failed and no one knew how to open the door. The heavy reinforced doors were designed to keep the people inside safe from any blast from the outside, now they were preventing them from escaping. 

A tall man with grey/white hair and wearing a black suit crossed his arms. "We have to open up the weapons stash, we need to find something that we can use to break out. After all these doors are designed to protect from the outside, not the inside." 

"An excellent idea Mr. Saldana, I'll get to it myself right away," reacted a secretary. 

"We can wait a while longer, after all we are alive. We can go out there and help to rebuild the world. The Shinra Corporation will rise again!" The crowd nodded, eager to please the highest-ranking executive among them. 

Mr. Condra, head of the mako reactor maintenance team was a weedy fellow who had spoken little during their time in the bunker. He had the air of a small mammal about him, always edgy but not threatening. Now he spoke up. "Sir, we will probably have to fix the reactors when we get out as quickly as possible, our reserve power is running low. Can I have your permission to organise a team now?" 

Saldana looked at the faces that had turned towards him. "Am I to take it that I will be the leader of this new Shinra Corporation?" 

"Of course, president Saldana." 

~ ~ ~

Iona heard a low moaning sound coming from inside the ruins of a building. A two-story house had partially collapsed leaving the front half almost untouched but the back half as rubble. 

"Hold on, help is coming," she shouted. Iona walked into the house to find it very dark. "Hello?" 

"Help me, please," pleaded a voice from the darkness. 

"Where are you?" 

"My leg…it's trapped under a wooden beam…it just fell and pinned me down…I've been here for hours…help…" the voice sobbed. "My husband…my child…they're both gone." 

"Light!" commanded Iona and her yellow materia lit up the room. She could see how the other half of the quaint house had fallen, half covering a dinner table where some food was still laid out. 'Obviously intended to be some sort of last meal for the family,' thought Iona. It had been for two of them. The woman lay on her front, tired and bloody from various small wounds. Her eyes were wide with despair and her shoulder length brown hair soaked in blood and tears. 

"Don't worry, I'll have you out of there." With two swipes of her sword Iona cut the beam up so that the segment over the woman's leg was loose and could be rolled away. "You look injured," commented Iona. "Hold still for a moment. Cure3!" 

A green light filled the room casting double shadows with the light from the 'light' materia. The wounds on the victim were healed up but her appearance and clothes were still a mess. "So what is your name?" asked the crimson hared rescuer. 

The woman stood up, shaking as she did so. "My name is Jezzibella Meredith, but everyone calls me Jess. Thank you ever so much for saving me, let me repay the favour somehow. You can see I have nothing left here. What is you name kind stranger?" 

"Enough with the flattery already, my name is Iona Versalis I'm going around the city helping people in need. Would you care to join me?" 

"I'd be more then happy to." The pair walked out of the ruined house and walked over to a corner shop that looked untouched. 

"I'd bet you're hungry," commented Iona. 

Jess nodded feverently. "You bet." "Then stand back." Iona used the blunt end of her sword to smash the glass window on the door. Finding it locked; she used the other end of her sword to hack a hole big enough to walk through to get inside. 

"Is this what the world has come to?" asked Jess. "Are we all scavengers now?" 

"Unfortunately we are, until we can become self-sufficient as a community again." 

"Community? What community?" inquired Jess. 

"I've just come from Neo-Midgar in sector 4. We are all survivors trying to rebuild something. I am here to save more people and help us build something new and better and to try to redeem myself." 

Jess looked hopeful. "So there are others! That has made me so glad." After a moment of silence Jess asked, "What are you trying to redeem yourself for?" 

"I'd rather not talk about it." Iona stared towards the floor. 

"Okay, if that's how you feel. So tell me about Neo-Midgar." Iona's mako eyes lit up again as she talked about what she had achieved and her hopes and dreams. They grabbed some food and Iona continued her story as they walked down the road. She was interrupted by a quiet sobbing. 

"Sounds like we have work to do." 

~ ~ ~

Two chocobos, one blue and one gold, sped over the grass near to Corel. Nanaki and Barret were holding on to their chocobos for dear life. They had parted ways with the others at Costa Del Sol, Vincent stopping off to begin his assignment. Now it was time for these two to part too. 

"I'll see you back in Midgar in a day or two Red." Barret managed to utter as he vainly tried to get his ocean chocobo to slow down. 

"Good Luck at the Gold Saucer, yikes!" Nanaki's Chocobo had jumped over a boulder and he had almost fallen off in the process. "I've said it enough times already, paws are not designed to ride chocobos!" 

Nanaki could hear Barret cursing as the large black man disappeared off into the distance. 

"Wark!" went Nanaki's gold chocobo. "Yes, I'm sure. Now please get me to Cosmo Canyon with as few surprises as possible." The chocobo then began to run up the side of a mountain. 

Barret continually swore at his bird until it deposited him in Corel. "WAARK!" it screeched and then it pecked him. "I shouldn't o' made as much fun o' Cid as I did. Those things are nasty." The chocobo looked at him with a look of superiority on its face and trotted off towards a puddle for a drink. 

Barret rubbed his shoulder where he had been pecked and dusted himself off before walking towards the waiting crowd. "Hiya foo's, look we're needing ya help." 

"What's going on Barret? You can see that we're not capable of helping much, but tell us what happened?" 

Barret rubbed his head. "Well I could do with some volunteers to go up to the gold saucer with me and then make our way over to Midgar, or rather whatever's left o' it. Anyweh' dis is what we've been up to…" 

Later on Barret led a team up to the gold saucer. The cable car assistants had been surprised that anyone was going up to the gold saucer. When they got there they found that most of the lights were off and the usual fairground music wasn't playing. "What's goin' on up here?" asked Barret. 

Dio himself stood by the entrance looking worried, no one had ever recalled Dio looking upset before (except for that one time when his museum was robbed). He caught sight of Barret and the others and quickly walked over to them. "Customers!" he cried. "I'm so glad to see someone here, this place is almost empty. All of the money used to come flowing in from the Shinra people, but first Shinra went and then Midgar! Now there are few people rich enough to come here, we're going to have to…CLOSE DOWN if things don't improve soon!" 

Barret looked the eccentric man in the face and tried to think of something to say. Dio continued before Barret could. "The world economy is in tatters, but what does that matter to you? Enjoy your time here at the Gold Saucer! Ha ha!

"Um, Dio. I'm afraid dat were not here to spend money, we're here to ask for your help. See Midgar is in trouble…"

~ ~ ~

Olton sat down in front of the main fire. The leaders of the community had all gathered for dinner. 

"So," asked Olton. "What did our salvage teams find today?" 

A boy who looked about 15 replied. "The main items of interest we found today were some proper tents. One of our teams found the ruins of an outdoor pursuits store. Now our people can rest properly tonight." 

"Not a moment too soon, the first night is closing in." Olton nodded towards the sun that was beginning to hang low in the sky. "It's only been a day since the meteor event but our lives have changed so much. When Iona gets back we really have to thank her again for all that she has done, perhaps we could call her the mayor of this little town." 

"Ha ha, mayor Versails. That sounds like a good one." 

"Oh there was one other thing we found today." 

"Oh yea? Spit it out kid." 

"Another one of our teams went up to have a look at the no.4 Mako reactor." Several people in the group shuddered at the mentioning of the reactors. "Well we found that the reactor was only slightly damaged, if we got someone who knew what they were doing and looked at the other reactors for spare parts we could soon have an electricity supply again!" 

There were murmurs of agreement from the assembly. A power supply was one of the basic utilities of modern civilisation; they would be well off if they could get a reactor working. Soon Neo-Midgar would be a proper town and the world would return to normal for them. 

"An excellent idea, but we would have to find some of the technicians who used to work for Shinra." 

"I'll start asking some of the townspeople tomorrow." 

The group then finished with business and settled down to their meal, aware that supplies were running low. 

"I've been thinking, all of a sudden things are growing in Midgar. Perhaps we should try to set up some farms in the area, we could grow our own food." 

"We'll talk about it tomorrow. Hopefully Iona will be back by then." 

~ ~ ~

Yuffie shook her head and was sick over the side of the chocobo again. 

"God ^&*$in damn it Yuffie, keep your stomach away from me!" yelled Cid after his chocobo was forced to take a detour due to Yuffie. 

"Sorry Cid, but you should, like, know I get motion sickness from anything moving too fast, and this chocobo is known for being one of the fastest in the world, I mean like gawd." 

Cid grumbled something under his breath and kicked Shera lightly in the side to make her go faster. 'At least I've ridden on these things a few times before,' thought Cid. 'Heck, I've even won a few races down at the gold saucer. The other poor fools in our group must be doing worse then us.' He was trying desperately not to think of the fate that befell his beloved Highwind. He had been overjoyed at finally having his hands on a proper large airship but after the frenzied escape from the northern crater after Sephiroth's defeat, the battering from the battle of meteor and holy and the forced crash landing, there wasn't much left. 

"What you thinkin' about now?" asked the off-colour Yuffie. 

"Damn you girl, I'm tryin' not to think about the Highwind!" Yuffie herself wasn't that bothered by the loss of the group's airship. She had always felt very ill when riding in it. Slowly however, she realised that now they would have to travel everywhere by chocobo. 

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" she wailed. "What's up with you all of a sudden?" game the gruff response. "Why you acting like you suddenly give a $&*%?" 

"Hey I do care too. It's gonna be, like, a lot harder to get around now and take a lot longer on these stupid birds!" 

"Shut up and quit yer whining." 

As the mismatched pair neared the top of a mountain they could see the plains spread out beneath them. A cluster on the horizon marked Rocket town. The usual distinctive rocket was gone, of course. Cid looked at his hometown and felt pride at what they had achieved. He had been one of the first people in space, along with that spiky hared dumbass Cloud, his girl Tifa and of course Shera. 

"Hey anybody there?" 

Yuffie was waving her hands in front of Cid's face to snap him out of his trance like state. To do this she had to manoeuvre her chocobo into a rather uncomfortable position. "Ah ^%$*," was all he could say. His sudden movement surprised Yuffie who then fell sideways off of her chocobo. She grabbed the chocobo's neck on her way down, causing it to panic and trip as well. Soon the two were lying in a heap a small way down the side of the mountain. 

"Can't you go five minutes without making a fool out of yourself girl?" Cid moved his chocobo over to her to make sure she had taken no serious injuries. Once he saw that she was all right he said; "I'm off now so look after yourself, you can't always expect us to look after you, you know." 

Yuffie looked up at him from under one of the wings of her chocobo. "Shut up you *$$&!%^, I've been looking after myself for a long time before I met you lot!" 

Cid glared down at her. "I'll see you back in Midgar ninja wannabe." 

"Come back here, I'll, like, tear you limb from limb!" 

As Cid disappeared down the side of the mountain, Yuffie sniggered to herself. "Heh, heh. I've got so much of their materia now, that they won't know what hit them!" She said to the world in general. She opened a pouch on her pack and checked to see that it was all there. "It's a great pity Cloud wouldn't give these to me, especially after I asked so nicely. Oh, well I guess he got to keep his favourite summon 'Knights of the Round.' I looked everywhere and I couldn't find it. I wonder where he hid it?" Yuffie's chocobo stood up and shook itself off before glaring at her. "What? Don't look at me like that! Wait, what are you, like, doing? Wait, stay back, no, NO!" 

The chocobo began to peck her repeatedly on the head. 

~ ~ ~

Five of the six chocobo riders had reached their destinations that night. They had all talked to mayors and officials with varying degrees of success. As night began to fall over Neo-Midgar a small army of chocobo riders assembled. 

__

End of Chapter 2. 

Are there too many new characters? I may put up a list of my characters on part three. 


	3. The Night

Chapter 3: The First Night ****

Chapter 3: The First Night

Cloud and Tifa walked into the new town as the newly acquired tents were being put up. They were pleasantly surprised by the level of organisation among the survivors. 

"Wow," breathed Cloud. "It looks like we might not be needed in this part of the city after all." 

A rushed looking man with bent glassed saw them and jogged over. "Hello, my name is Olton. I'm in charge here at the moment. Can I ask why you are here, we could do with some help." 

"Hey slow down," suggested Cloud. "We're here to help, but it looks like you've already been helped somewhat." 

Tifa had been looking at the people; they were of mixed ages and a typical bunch of Midgar folk. Except Midgar residents were never this friendly or open. "I can see that someone has been through here with a cure materia. The bloodstained clothes and lack of injuries show that." 

Olton looked at Tifa, impressed by her deductions. "Well done, we have had outside help. A mysterious girl came through here earlier with some mastered cure materia. She saved our lives and we are all very grateful towards her." 

Cloud looked at Tifa. "I guess someone beat us here." 

"We still have plenty that needs doing. All of our residents are currently very busy and we need someone to go over to sector 5 to help any survivors there." 

Tifa scratched her head. "I thought sector 5 had been flattened by the plate from above, we saw the damage from the outside." 

Olton shook his head and explained the situation. "The plate above sector 5 split into three pieces before it fell. This crushed the inner and outer parts of the sector but left the middle section relatively undamaged. If you have some cure materia we encourage you to be on your way there now. This time is very important, quick actions can save lives. Follow me, I'll show you a path that we think leads to the centre of sector 5." The black man gestured and the duo followed. 

Cloud decided to take a moment to equip his materia while Tifa asked Olton about the town. The leader of the group that had saved the world laughed inside when he realised that few people would believe their stories of how they beat Sephiroth. He brandished his Ultima weapon in front of him, the sword that had fatally wounded his nemesis earlier that day. It was finally all over, the madness was finished. 

Cloud realised that all of the materia slots on his sword were empty so he looked into his bag to grab a cure materia. 

"What the?" 

"What's wrong Cloud?" asked Tifa. 

"My materia, it's all gone! Every single piece is gone! All of my summons, my command materia, cure materia…everything!" 

Their eyes connected and they both uttered a name familiar to the group. "Yuffie." 

"When I get hold of her I'm going to have to do something very unpleasant to her, something so nasty I don't even know what it is yet!" 

"Calm down Cloud, I still have my materia. You can use one of my cure materias." 

The trio stopped at a crossroads. "This is as far as I have time to take you," admitted Olton. "I've got work to get back to. If you just keep going straight you should come to an old church…" 

"We know the one." Interrupted Tifa before Cloud could say anything. "Thanks a lot for your time. Oh, by the way, we sent our friends to other towns to ask for help. By tomorrow you should start to get some supplies." 

"Oh thank you very much!" squealed the man in a way that made Tifa back off. "We were in need of more food and equipment for shelter, thank you again. I'm very sorry, but I really have to be going now. Good luck and goodbye!" 

Cloud and Tifa waved and then headed off towards Aeris's church. "Was it just me or did you find that guy, you know, a little weird?" asked Tifa. 

"He seemed fairly normal to me, but then again we have just met a lot of very strange people recently." Soon they were at work amidst the ruins of sector 5, healing the survivors and directing them towards Neo-Midgar. 

~ ~ ~

Iona walked out of a bungalow and nodded to Jess. "This whole neighbourhood is in very good shape, all of these houses are habitable. I even found one with a family still living inside!" 

The small cluster of houses stood near to the outside edge of the sector. They had a suburban feel to them; this was one of the richer neighbourhoods under the plate. Now grass was beginning to grow in some of the cracks in the pavement, adding colour to the once grey area. 

"This looks like a good place to set up another small town," suggested Iona. 

Jess nodded and then added; "I used to do a little research on the history of Midgar and I think this was where one of the original towns were. Before it was assimilated by Midgar and renamed sector 3, this town was called Arikara. How's that for a name for this place?" 

"Much better then any number, it has more of an atmosphere." 

Jess kicked a stone and watched it bounce down the road. "I hope no one who lived in these houses comes back and complains when they see we've turned them into a small town." 

"Don't worry about that, those people abandoned their homes I don't think any of them expected anything to be left." Iona grabbed Jess's arm and pulled her back in the direction of the centre of the city. "Come on, we have to tell those we rescued about their new homes!" 

~ ~ ~

Delvin Spanton watched the sun as it descended. The air was still dirty, dust from the meteor event hung in the air making a haze and blurring the sunset. He swung his chocobo around and made it face south where he could see a flower beginning to grow. Delvin looked over his sleek black shotgun and brought it up, the 'lightning' and 'haste' materia shone in the evening light. 

'Better test this thing,' he thought as he fired, leaving a small crater where the flower had once been. 

"Nice shot boss." Delvin turned his chocobo around again to see his deputy and wife, Annette, clad entirely in black leather and atop another mountain chocobo. 

Delvin coughed and opened up his gun. "Gotta keep practising ya know." He looked over his 'tribe' of raiders, a good fifty escapees from the slums all riding stolen yellow or green chocobos. He had named his group 'The Riders of Darkness' but the name had never really caught on. Most of them were just looking for a way to survive, but he was also enjoying himself. 

"So, come on. Get yourself ready," he ordered his wife. Delvin made his chocobo trot over to the front of the assembly of riders while he re-loaded his shotgun. "We'll be moving out in an hour and we don't know quite what we'll be facin'. Our recon teams have told us that this lot are armed with materia, so watch yourselves but remember that this is just more to steal. It will be dark, but we will have the element of surprise." He twirled his gun round and herd it click shut. "Remember to check your weapons before we leave, soon your lives may depend on them." 

~ ~ ~

"How long have we been trapped in here now?" asked the new president of Shinra. 

His secretary glanced at her watch. "It has been about 12 hours since we found that the door refused to open. Unfortunately we have still had no success with breaking through and the area has had to have been abandoned due to the heat based weapons heating the metal walls to dangerous temperatures." 

Michael Saldana leant back in his comfortable chair. "How about supplies and all of our other systems?" 

The secretary flipped a page over on her clipboard and then pushed her wheely chair over to a monitor and typed a few commands into a keyboard. "Almost all of our other systems are fully operational. We lost all of our external sensors during the event and also lost all of our power feeds from the Mako reactors. Fortunately the Shinra no. 27 is undamaged and is ready for use in case of a worst case scenario. The equipment has been checked and the ship has been re-fuelled. Our weapons and materia are all accessible and we have enough supplies to keep us going for another week." 

"Surely we have some heavy cutting equipment somewhere?" 

"Our inventory claims that we have some but we have still been unable to locate it." 

Saldana dismissed her with a wave of his hand and got back to planning the recapture of the outside world. 'Fortunately the infrastructure already exists for us,' thought the president. 'The loss of Shinra must have left a huge power gap, we have to fill it before some other group does!' 

~ ~ ~

When the sun set, it became very dark in sector five very quickly. The plate had previously kept it dark, but lights from the houses had always lit the way. Now there was only the glow of Tifa's battery powered torch beneath the open sky. 

"Cloud, we aren't going to find any more survivors tonight. We have to get some sleep and continue tomorrow morning." 

Cloud looked into the darkness around him before giving up and agreeing with Tifa. "Fine, we'd better be finding a place to spend the night in then." 

Tifa shone her torch higher and they realised that they had come to Aeris's church. "Looks as good a place as any," commented Cloud. 

"Cloud, are you sure you want to sleep there? Won't it...bring back memories?" 

Cloud put a hand on Tifa's cheek and brought her head round to face him. "Only happy memories, don't worry about me. Sure I'm sad that she's gone, after all I…anyway there aren't any other safe buildings around here." 

Tifa stared into his face sceptically; she could see the pain there. Aeris had been one of Tifa's best friends when she was alive; Tifa found it hard not to like her despite the situation. She knew that Cloud loved Aeris, but she also knew that Cloud loved her. It was a dispute that had never been settled. 

"Come on then," sighed Cloud as he walked through the entrance archway. "I've got the sleeping bags in my pack." 

Tifa followed him in, shining her light around to get a good look at the place. She had only been here a few times before, once or twice with Aeris. It still looked the same with the hole still in the roof from where Cloud fell in. The flowers looked beautiful when illuminated, with the reactors no longer sucking up all of the life energy around Midgar the flowers grew well by themselves. 

Soon the pair were tucked up, it was a fairly warm night and they had a lot on their minds, but both of them were very tired after the events of the last few weeks, especially the last two days and soon drifted off to sleep. 

~ ~ ~

The lookout sat on the roof of an old shop near to the edge of Neo-Midgar. Mae Haaker was originally from Wutai and she looked very Wutaneese. She had come to Midgar three years ago to seek her fortune. She didn't find it but found a loving husband and a reasonable job working for Shinra. When meteor came, she wanted to spend her last hours by her lover's side. 

She had survived by a few centimetres; he had not been so lucky. 

Now she sat, illuminated by the burning torches set up around the camp, listening to the noises of the night. It had been a long time since she had heard silence, Midgar was never quiet. The wildlife had not yet returned to the area and Mae had a very good sense of hearing so she could hear the sound of the approaching chocobos. She listened carefully for a few seconds, the crackling of the flames suddenly seemed too loud. Realising that it was better to be safe then sorry, she stood up and shouted out at the top of her voice. "CHOCOBOS ARE COMING!" 

Groaning noises could be heard from the camp as some people got up to inspect the situation. Olton used his pocket lighter to light another torch and have a look outside of the city. The chocobo riders were faintly outlined, but even he could hear them now. 

"GET UP EVERYONE!" he yelled. "RAIDERS ARE COMING!" 

The town suddenly began to spring to life. Some people were in sleep too deep to be woken up by even the commotion, but most of the officers were about and grabbing their materia, ready for battle. 

Mae craned her neck to get a good look at the attacking army. "I can see about thirty chocobos heading this way sir!" 

There was the sound of a shotgun being fired, and Mae's chest exploded sending blood everywhere. 

"$*&%!" shouted Olton. "Someone cure her now!" 

The ground shook as the flock of chocobos closed in. A militia formed by the gate to the city, materia at the ready. "On my word," began an officer. More shots fired out, some hitting the officer giving commands. The chocobos were now illuminated by the torchlight. "Fire at will!" shouted another officer. 

Then the sky lit up as various spells were cast. 

~ ~ ~

__

"Tifa." 

Tifa sat up and looked around her. Who had been calling her name? She stood up and peered into the darkness of the church around her. When she turned around she could see a light, a green glow. It was getting larger as its source was getting closer. 

"W-who's there?" she questioned. 

"Don't worry, it's only me." 

Tifa's mind began to spin as she realised who it had to be, despite all logic. "It can't be…" 

"This is just a dream Tifa, there is no need to be alarmed. I'm speaking to you from the lifestream, I've been watching you and Cloud for some time now." 

"Aeris?" 

The figure was now clearly visible and stood directly in front of Tifa. She was still wearing her favourite pink dress that she had died in. "I didn't want to interrupt your lives, it wouldn't be right but I have two messages from the planet which I have to deliver." 

"I miss you, friend. But why are you in my dream and not in Cloud's? I'm sure he would be the logical choice for you to talk to." 

"As I said, I don't want to disrupt your lives too much. If Cloud saw me how do you think he would feel? He would be heartbroken again, that would make me unhappy and if Cloud was weeping over me again, I'm sure it would make you unhappy too. No one would benefit, so I am talking to you. You must promise me not to tell Cloud unless the situation becomes critical. Much as I may want to talk to him, the end would not be worth it." 

"Always the noble one, eh? Don't worry, I can keep a secret. But you probably know all about that, after all I told Cloud the truth when we were in the lifestream! But what do you mean by a critical situation? What's going on? I thought it was all over, wasn't holy supposed to sort out all of the loose ends?" 

"That is why I have broken my silence to talk to you. Holy may have destroyed meteor with the help of the lifestream and me but ultimately it failed. Holy was supposed to destroy all threats to the planet, it deactivated all of the remaining weapons but only managed to shut down Shinra's Mako reactors. The main problem is Jenova…" 

"So it isn't over." Tifa looked down at the floor and felt very tired again. 

"Holy was supposed to destroy all traces of Jenova, but Cloud's continued existence is proof enough that it failed. Sephiroth may be gone, but the planet feels that more of Jenova's cells are out there somewhere. We know that Jenova will strike again, but we don't know how, when or who." 

"So I just have to stay on guard for now?" 

The flower girl nodded. "I will contact you whenever we find more information, but for now just be ready. I hope that I won't have to talk to you again but be ready, and in case I don't see you again, have a nice life with Cloud." 

"Aren't you bitter at all? He loved you, you know." 

"I know, but look at the way things are. Besides, I'm not the type of girl to hold a grudge." 

"You are too nice, you know that?" giggled Tifa. "If you had lived though, Which one of us do you think Cloud would have chosen?" 

The ethereal Aeris put her hands behind her back and leaned forwards in her traditional pose. "I don't know, but it would have been fun to find out. He would probably have tried to find a way to eventually marry both of us!" 

The two girls laughed as Aeris began to fade away. "Wait, you said you had two messages from the planet!" 

"Goodbye Tifa, the other message is for all of your group but only you can hear it for now. It is short, only two words." 

All that was visible now was a green mist. "Goodbye Aeris." The mist vanished and two words hung in the air. 

"Thank you." 

~ ~ ~

Iona had been sitting on the porch of one of the houses, staring up at the stars for the first time in her memory. The night sky had always been obscured by the plate above and the lights were too bright in the city to be able to make anything out anyway. This meant that she was awake when the flashes of light began. She stood and turned towards Neo-Midgar. 

More flashes came, now faster then before. She recognised them as spells, Ice2, Bio, Fire3. 

Iona rushed back into the house to pick up her sword. 'It has to be a raider attack,' she thought. 

"Light!" She lit up the area and began to run back to sector 4 with her sword held in front of her. 'I hope Jess and the others in Arikara will be fine while I'm gone.' 

The materia made it bright enough for Iona to see as clearly as day; this let her run as fast as she could without worrying about tripping over any of the debris that still littered the roads. 'I have to help them!' 

~ ~ ~

On the other side of the world it was still early morning. A golden chocobo ran into the town with a half asleep ninja on its back. Being intelligent and not one to hold a grudge, the chocobo decided to wake its passenger. 

"WARK!" 

The call woke the passenger and some of the late sleepers in nearby houses. Yuffie, of course, fell off of the chocobo's back and landed on her back on the ground of her hometown. She quickly stood up and a huge grin crossed her face. 

"I'm back!" she shouted out. "And I have a lot of materia." 

She took a deep breath of Wutaneese air, picked up her pack (which was full of materia) and began to walk over to her father's house. 

Some townspeople watched her go by; she waved triumphantly at some of her old 'friends' when she saw them staring at her from their windows. Yuffie was happy, she had saved the world and got her hands on a large amount of powerful materia. Now she could walk through the streets of her hometown with her head held high, and hopefully gain the respect of all of the inhabitants. 

"Godo, I'm back!" she shouted as she walked into the large house. Yuffie then ran down the corridor looking for her father. She found him in his room practising wielding his sword. 

He glared at her and then asked, "So what happened? We saw the sky light up when we expected meteor to strike, what became of you and your friends journey to the northern crater?" 

Yuffie began to talk excitedly and quickly, waving her hands about in her enthusiasm. She explained all about the end of Shinra, Sephiroth and Midgar and about how she got most of the group's materia. 

"So Midgar is no more?" 

"Yes, Cloud sent me here to ask you and the rest of Wutai to help the survivors. You know, like, food, rescue workers and stuff." 

Godo looked at his daughter with some pride. "You have done well. With Shinra gone Wutai can be free once again, we may even be able to expand to distant shores. This materia will come in very useful in the future." 

Yuffie thought about his words for a moment. "Are you planning something?" she inquired. "I hope you're not going to take advantage of all of the poor people who used to live in Midgar." 

Godo laughed. "Don't worry dear daughter, I will make sure that we send aid to them. And I will make sure that they know who sent it." 

~ ~ ~

Delvin slowed his chocobo down as he re-loaded his gun. The battle was not going as well as planned. The defenders were more heavily armed then he had expected and were not giving up, despite their heavy casualties. The Riders of Darkness were making progress, the defence lines had crumbed before them, but now individuals were fighting his men, surrounding individual chocobo riders and blasting them with a variety of spells and weapons. He had lost almost half of his men already. 

Delvin focused on a dark man who seemed to be giving commands. The rider kicked his chocobo and it sped towards Olton. Olton saw Delvin coming and raised his Bio materia, but he was too slow. 

"Bolt2!" 

A thunderbolt hit Olton's outstretched hand, giving him a strong shock. Delvin then raised his gun and shot Olton's hand off. 

Iona ran into the scene of chaos just as this happened. Her sword already outstretched she screamed inside with anger but ran forward silently as her training had taught her. 

She saw the unshaven raider pick up the semi-conscious Olton by his shirt. "Put him down now!" she demanded. 

Delvin's only response was to re-load his gun, but Iona was faster then he thought. She ran up to him and leaped up, slashing his arm with her sword. The light materia on it still glowed brightly and so made the turn of events even more surprising for him. Delvin dropped his prisoner from pain and shock, clutching his right arm where she had struck him. 

"You'll pay for that you bitch!" he shouted over the roar of the battle. One of his riders came up behind her, but she merely spun round and decapitated him, leaving his chocobo to run off in a panic. 

"Leave this one to us darling," suggested Annette, flanked by three riders on either side. 

"Cure 3 – All!" shouted Iona during her reprieve. A green glow appeared over all of her wounded people, healing them dramatically. 

Delvin looked about in a panic; he had not expected anyone like her. 

The seven riders charged with their various weapons aimed at Iona while Delvin fumbled in his bag to try and find some cure materia to use on his arm. 

__

"Use your summon materia Iona" 

Iona didn't question the suggestion, instead she brought her sword above her head with the point facing upwards and called the power forth unto her attackers. 

"Ultimate End!" 

Everyone in the area paused what they were doing as the summon began, large amounts of energy were discharged as the knights came forth and all began their devastating combination. Each blow was far more then enough to send a chocobo and its rider into oblivion. 

When it had finished there were deep cuts in the ground where the chocobos had been. The huge use of MP had exhausted Iona and she collapsed. 

Delvin stared at the spot where his wife had been just a moment ago, still not believing what he had seen. She was gone, Annette was no more. Delvin felt his ever-present rage reach a new peak. That red hared woman would pay for what she had done. He pointed his gun at her and fired, but one of the townspeople jumped in the way of his shot and was hit instead. 

"She saved my life…now I repay the favour…" he murmured as he died. 

Now more people stood between him and her. 

"Get out of here now! Or face the consequences!" 

Delvin's quiet voice of reason spoke up from amidst his bloodlust. His men had lost, he had to run. 

"Retreat!" he shouted, firing another shot in Iona's direction. It hit an officer, but her comrades returned fire. 

Delvin felt fear as he was pursued towards the exit. It was all that girl's fault; he would be back and have revenge, if only there was a way around her immense power! 

They were no match for the speed of his chocobo and soon he was back out in the barren wasteland that extended for miles around the city. Only two other riders followed him out. 

"What happened back there boss?" 

"We got annihilated!" 

Delvin looked at them, still not fully comprehending the enormity of the calamity that had just occurred. "That girl," he snarled. "Is the source of all of our troubles. Come, we must get to Kalm to try to recover. I am so tired that I cannot use my materia and I need to get this arm seen to." 

The defeated raiders urged their chocobos through the night towards the nearby town of Kalm that had been overflowing with refugees before meteor had even struck. 


	4. The Sunrise

Chapter 4: Sunrise ****

Chapter 4: Sunrise

Cloud yawned and stretched himself. That had been the first proper nights sleep since his battle with Sephiroth in the Northern Crater. He sat up and looked around, he could see that Tifa was already up. 

"Morning Cloud, how did you sleep?" 

He looked up at the girl and thanked her for the breakfast she had made for him. "I slept well thanks, I had this wonderful dream…" 

Tifa raised an eyebrow, had Aeris been telling her the truth? "Who was in it?" 

Cloud looked at her as if it was obvious. "Why, you and Aeris of course." Tifa decided to leave it there, Aeris wouldn't have visited Cloud in a dream if she was also there, would she? 

Cloud attacked the small meal that had been so lovingly prepared. "Get ready Cloud, we've got more work to do today." 

The warrior stood up and equipped himself with his sword and materia. "Ready Tifa?" The pair looked at each other and gave a quick nod before heading out into the fresh air to search for any more people trapped under the rubble. 

"You know, Cloud?" 

"Yea?" 

"Are you happy that it's all over, that the world has been saved and that our work is done?" Tifa wanted to know how Cloud felt about what she feared was coming next without telling him about it. 

"I suppose so, I don't think I'll miss all of our battles that much but…" 

"So what do you want to do now?" 

Cloud looked at Tifa with a slight shine in his eyes. "I'll tell you once we have this mess sorted out." 

Tifa began to think about Cloud's words and what Aeris had said, perhaps Cloud was thinking about settling down…with her! 

The scene looked no better then last night, except that there were a few more blades of grass scattered about the city. "We should've brought Red along," commented Tifa. "He would've been useful for finding the trapped people." 

They carried on their search. 

~ ~ ~

Iona slowly woke up. She snapped her eyes open as her training had conditioned her to do and tried to stand up, she quickly found that she was still weak and fell back onto the soft mattress she had been sleeping on. 

Soft mattress? 

Then she remembered the last moments before she collapsed, what had happened afterwards? She could remember the power flowing through her, was that the power of her new summon? 

__

"But it still had not been enough." 

Iona looked around again; she was alone in a tent. Who had said that? Whoever it was, they were right. Neo-Midgar is still not strong enough and she might not always be around to protect it. What was missing? The people had fought bravely to her recollection, but they lacked training and had only basic materia and weapons. That was what she had to see to. 

A figure opened the door to her tent and walked in, she recognised him as a boy she had saved from a collapsed tower block. He was very lucky to be alive, as were most of the others she had saved. 

"Miss Versailis, you have recovered!" he beamed at her. 

"What happened after I passed out?" she replied quickly. 

"Well, the raiders had attacked suddenly and we weren't doing well until you turned up. That summon was amazing Iona, it really turned the tide in our favour! After that the remainder panicked, they tried to get away but kept fighting even after we asked them to stop. Almost all of them were killed, a good fifty or so but…" his voice trailed off. 

"We took heavy casualties didn't we?" The boy nodded silently. "Let me up, I want to see what's left and help. Has someone been using my 'cure' materia?" 

The boy shook his head. "No way miss, we wouldn't dare to take your materia." 

Iona sighed. "If people's lives are in danger, you have to help them. Feel free to use my materia to help people if I am unable to." She slowly stood, shaking on her feet. 

"Let me help you, miss Versailis." The young boy walked over to her and put one of her arms over his shoulders to steady her. "You really should rest some more." 

"Don't worry about me," she complained but he led her on. 

The once calm town of Neo-Midgar was now a scene of further destruction. Craters littered the landscape and there were bullet holes everywhere. Most of the tents were either torn or burnt down and the building they had been using for meetings had now collapsed too. In the middle of the town the deep cuts from Iona's summon were still visible, a small scar in the landscape of concrete and dirt. The survivors of this assault were still busy, trying to get the town operational again. The dead had clearly been taken away, Iona wondered what the townspeople had done with them. At the side of the ruins of the headquarters a small fence had been erected, inside three chocobos trotted around. 'They must have been found after the fight' she thought. 

A familiar man jogged over to her, his suit was even tattier then before and he had a shirt wrapped around the end of one of his arms as a makeshift bandage, it was now a deep and dark shade of red. 

"Olton, you're alive!" 

She tried to run over towards him and he rushed forwards to catch her as she fell again. He was able to support her with his one good arm. "It's good to see you again," he said. She smiled back at him. 

"So, how bad was it? How do you feel?" 

Olton pushed his twisted glasses up and frowned. "They got us good, about half of our people are seriously injured and there were a number of deaths. The worst of it is our supplies, our food tents got burnt down in the crossfire and now we have enough to last us two days tops." 

Iona took in the news with a grave look on her face, Olton could see her mind working at a frenzied pace as she made plans to try and cope with the logistics of the problems at hand. 

"Hey!" added Olton. "Don't ware yourself out, we need you as a leader. There is some good news ya' see." 

Iona paused for a moment. "It has to be something pretty amazing to save us…" 

"It's just what we may have been hopin' for. Ya' see yesterday I met this couple who were coming into the city from outside to help people, kinda like you. Anyway, they said that they had friends who were goin round the world trying to organise help. They even said we should expect the first lot to be hear by today!" 

"So we will get help from outside sooner then we expected..." 

"Exactly. Now you just go back to your tent and rest some more, I'll help to sort this lot out." 

"No way, look at you!" exclaimed Iona. "You need a rest far more then I do." The two tried to stare each other out until the boy intervened. 

"Look, why don't you both take a rest? I'm sure us officers can sort everything out. Both of you'll be a lot more useful to the group if you've had a proper rest." 

They both looked at him. "What was your name?" asked Iona. 

"My name is Quinn Vig miss." Iona was made to remember her brother Quinn; she wondered where he was, had he survived? 

"You've got a good mind Quinn, I'm sure you'll go far." The two leaders gave each other a nod and retired to their 'quarters.' 

Their rests were interrupted half an hour later by the roar of landing planes. 

~ ~ ~

Delvin sat in the overcrowded bar in Kalm with his two surviving colleagues. They had gotten some sleep and were now pondering their next course of action. The leader rubbed his arm where Iona had struck him with her sword; it would be a few more days before he would be able to go into battle again. 

They sat in gloom, wondering what to do. The two healthy members of the group had already silently relieved half of the occupants of the bar of their valuables; the money would come in useful. 

"How about them?" suggested the younger 'Rider of Darkness.' She nodded over towards a table in the other corner where two men and a woman in blue suits were sitting. 

"Are you nuts?" suggested the other one. "Those are the Turks! No one steals from them successfully. I think we should be happy with what we've got." 

"Is that a challenge?" 

"No, you'd have to be an idiot to even try it." 

"Either that or be as good as me." 

The young raider stood up and began to make his way around the room. "He's lost it," commented the other one to Delvin. 

In the meantime the Turks were also looking gloomy. They had lost their employers and their city, the world had been saved and they had lived thanks to the mercy of AVALANCHE. That was part of the problem, no one ever showed the Turks mercy, they never needed it. Now they were also lost and alone. 

"How about the Gold Saucer?" suggested Rude. "They could do with some hardmen." 

"But the Gold Saucer is shutting down, haven't you heard?" replied Elena. "They were already going out of business after Shinra collapsed, with Midgar gone, where will their customers come from?" 

The defeated Turks turned back to their drinks, except for Reno who turned to face the man trying to creep up behind him. "Can I help you at all?" he asked angrily. 

The raider looked about sheepishly. "No, no. No problems here." Then he casually returned to his table. 

"Well, perhaps we should just go to Junon. There's obviously no work for us here," added Rude. "Perhaps someone there will need our… services."

Then Delvin began to hear the voice again, the voice he now blamed for the disaster. 

__

"If you seek power and revenge head north. There you will find what you seek, if you are not too weak…" 

"What the hell are you?" he demanded. "Why should I listen to you?" 

__

"You know it makes sense, there is no other way. I am your best hope." 

Delvin realised that his friend was staring at him. 

"What?"

~ ~ ~

Cait Sith wondered what he would tell his friends. How could he tell them that he had been working on automatic for the last few days? And that he hadn't received a command from Reeve for as long? Cait Sith had no idea where Reeve was and was worried about him. Technically Cait knew that he was just a copy of Reeve, but that didn't stop him from feeling worried. 

The halls of power in Junon had been filled with a number of confused people. The Shinra Corporation had ceased to exist officially but there were still a large number of people who thought they were working for Shinra. After all Shinra had run Junon, so once the main branch of the company had collapsed the officials running Junon just carried on in the name of Shinra. Cait had all of Reeve's knowledge so was able to access all of the systems and organise a rescue team quite quickly. 

Now Cait sat on his stuffed moogle and watched the city he had once thought of as home from a window of the 'Trafalgar,' a ship built to the same design as AVALANCHE's Highwind. The ruins looked foreboding, but he knew that he had to lead his teams around the area, even into the city, to search for survivors. As the ship brought out it's landing gear he caught a glimpse of the cluster of tents which was Neo-Midgar. 

"It looks like there seems to be some sort of organised group down there," he commented to the nearby rescue workers. 

Back in Junon Cait Sith had been forced to pull rank against some of the other officials. Fortunately news of Reeve's arrest had not made it to Junon, and as his location was unknown, for all intents and purposes Cait Sith was Reeve. 

One of the Shinra managers standing near to him held his head with one hand. 'How could the remains of Shinra be ruled by a creature like this?' he thought. 

There was a shudder as the airship finally came to a landing. "Come on, we're here!" The three other ships, also from Junon came to safe landings nearby, the other ships had different designs, they looked smaller and bulkier and were all coloured a dirty brown. 

Cait noticed that the ground beneath his moogle's padded feet had a few blades of grass growing in it. 'I suppose I should have expected this after the reactors were taken out,' he thought. 

He watched as the well-trained troops marched out of the ships in their Shinra uniforms, there had even been a few squadrons of SOLDIERS in Junon which now fell under Cait's command. They also arranged themselves in front of their new leader. Cait waited for them to finish and then began to speak. 

"You have all already been given your orders so I expect you to carry them out properly. I know many of you may have had friends or family who had decided to stay in Midgar, but you have to remember your training and follow the procedures. Now get to it, we have people to save!" 

The assembly saluted and then marched off towards the city. Cait Sith and some of the high ranking officials of Shinra got into an all-terrain buggy which had been transported in the 'Trafalgar'. 

"Where are we going president Cait Sith?" 

"I saw a tent town from the air, I want to meet this group. They probably would be a good group to start giving our supplies to." Cait nodded (or rather the cat did) towards the trailer which held the first batch of their food aid, mostly consisting of canned food. "We want to make a good name for ourselves with these people, they feared the old Shinra. We need to regain their trust if the company is to recover." 

"Yes sir!" 

The buggy headed off towards sector 4, overtaking SOLDIERS on either side. 

~ ~ ~

Jess was worried. She had woken up to find that her new friend had disappeared. After asking the various people they had saved yesterday she gained no new information as to where Iona had gone, until she asked one young man…

"I don't know about Iona, perhaps it was something to do with those explosions coming from sector 4…" 

"What explosions?" 

"During the night, there were sounds of a battle coming from sector 4." 

Jess quickly made the connection. Neo-Midgar had to be in trouble, so Iona had run off to help it. "Can you lot sort yourselves out for a bit?" she asked. 

"What?" 

"I have to see Iona, I have to make sure that she is alright." With that Jess started to run towards sector 4, sprinting down vaguely familiar paths. 

~ ~ ~

Iona and Olton stood side by side to welcome the buggy as it rode through the gates. They suddenly changed stance to be more aggressive when they saw the Shinra logo on the side of the buggy and the suits that sat inside. 

"What the hell is that?" asked Olton pointing to Cait Sith. 

"Don't worry," boomed a voice over a megaphone. "We're the head of the rescue team!" 

The buggy screeched to a halt in the dirt and the occupants hopped out. "Hello," greeted Cait. "I'm Cait Sith, the new president of Shinra. We now plan to be a helpful and caring company and to start we want to help you." 

"What do you make of this?" whispered Olton to his leader. 

Iona shrugged. "We need all the help we can get." She turned to Cait. "Thanks a lot, if your intentions are what you claim. We are in need of food desperately as we have just lost most of our supplies to raiders." Iona thought for a moment. "There is a favour we would also like to ask of you." 

"What?" 

"Well, we had heard that Shinra had dissolved and so have made plans to put this mako reactor to use. We were wondering if we could have your permission and help to get it working again." 

Cait frowned, or rather tried to but he hadn't been designed for it. Cait had seen all that AVALANCHE had and knew what the mako reactors did to the planet. 

"I'm sorry," he began. "But Shinra not longer supports the use of mako reactors." 

The other Shinra officials gasped in surprise, Cait had not mentioned a radical idea like that to them yet. One of them stepped forwards. "With all due respect Mr. President such a dramatic policy change would have to be reviewed by…" 

Cait cut him off. "I have seen things in my travels which have changed my mind about the use of these reactors." 

Iona was shouting inside. 'Shinra were back?' 'They were against mako reactors?' 'This ruins my plans to use the reactor to create materia for my people. How can we survive in this new world without a source of power and materia?' Iona spoke up. 

"How then are we to restore power quickly to this town?" 

Cait didn't have an easy answer to that. "Don't worry miss…" 

"Iona Versalis." 

"Miss Versalis, we will help your people providing they continue not to use the mako reactors. You will be supplied with an alternative sometime in the future. Until then remember that that the reactors still belong to Shinra." The Shinra delegation was now negotiating about their new president and how to make him change his mind. 

"We are looking forwards to working peacefully with Shinra in the future," concluded Iona through gritted teeth. 

~ ~ ~

"Did you hear that Cloud?" asked Tifa as the airships came down. 

"Yes, It sounds like Cait actually did something well for once, those airships could only have come from Junon." 

Soon they met up with a group of SOLDIERS. "Hey!" shouted one of them. "I recognise you, you-you're Cloud Strife!" 

The squad turned to the spiky hared hero. Cloud jumped in surprise. "SOLDIER's? I thought you lot disbanded with Shinra!" 

The squad leader looked at Cloud with a puzzled expression on his face. "Shinra never disbanded, we've just been a little disorganised over in Junon for a while. Anyway, Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockheart you are both wanted for terrorist actions against Shinra..."" 

'What was this?' thought Cloud. 'Didn't Cait remove the rest of AVALANCHE from the wanted lists of SOLDIER?' 

"Look there has to be some kind of misunderstanding here," began Tifa as she stepped forwards. "Shinra was finished, the company folded didn't you hear? We saved the world you know!" 

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" 

Cloud began to get very worried. He and Tifa were good, but even they would have a hard time against a whole squad of SOLDIERS at once. Cloud rushed over to Tifa and grabbed her arm. "EXIT!" he shouted. 

There was a flash and the two of them found themselves running away from the SOLDIERS. 

"If I had my best materia, they wouldn't be a problem!" shouted Cloud. "I'm going to have to get even with Yuffie for this!" 

They kept on running away from their pursers until they found that they were in the centre of the city. They collapsed onto the floor to catch their breath. Before either one could speak they were startled by a loud buzzing noise. It was coming from a solid metal doorway that sat embedded into the base of the central pillar of Midgar. As they watched in silence a line began to appear as sparks shot out. They sat mesmerised as the cut moved along the side of the door and began to form a doorway…

~ ~ ~

President Saldana stood in his suit with his arms crossed as he watched the engineer use the cutter on the doorway. 

"We're almost through sir!" exclaimed one secretary. 

The guards stood waiting, ready to react to whatever was outside. The corridor fell silent as the line of cut metal met itself in the doorway. The engineer in the protective red overalls gave the door a solid kick and everyone held their breath as the segment of the doorway fell outwards. They all covered their eyes for a moment before their eyes got accustomed to the natural light and then they began to step forwards and out into the world. 


	5. The President of Shinra

Chapter 5 – The President of Shinra

Chapter 5 – The President of Shinra

****

President Saldana of Shinra covered his eyes with one hand and tried to look at the landscape before him. It took a moment for him to get used to the natural sunlight after days underground and years under the smog of Midgar. 

Most of his employees were too shocked by the sight they saw to speak; their home city was in ruins. 

"How can this be?" he asked, scanning the sectors for any surviving areas. "The damage is greater then we had predicted." 

Their eyes slowly got used to the level of light. Saldana's eyes focused on the two figures watching them from a short distance away. "Someone call Junon," he ordered. "We need to find out what survived. I had hoped that we could re-build Midgar but the damage is too extensive. This area is running out of abundant Mako energy anyway, we need to find somewhere else to begin drilling." 

"Mr. President sir!" 

Saldana turned to face his head of Mako reactor maintenance. "Yes, what do you want Mr Condra?" 

Condra licked his lips nervously. "I think we should perhaps try to set up a base of operations here, I'm sure my team can get at least one reactor working. Just give us some time please sir." 

"Fine." The president waved him away and then took a few steps forwards. "You two," he barked at Cloud and Tifa. "What happened out here over the last few days?" 

Cloud and Tifa had been listening to the entire conversation and had worked out who these people were; the surviving executives who had hidden in the Midgar bunker. Cloud quickly scanned the crowd; there were only a few SOLDIERS among them. He could take them out and be rid of another part of the old Shinra. 

Cloud unsheathed his sword. "The reign of Shinra is finished, Midgar is no more and Shinra has a new president." 

One of the SOLDIERS stepped forwards to protect his president. "Sir, that is Cloud Strife. He was the one at the top of our wanted lists for crimes against Shinra." 

Cloud looked over at Tifa; he could see the hatred in her eyes too. They thought that everything would be fine once Rufus and Sephiroth were gone, it seems that their fight went on. As Cloud prepared to strike he heard the sound of marching feet. He, Tifa and the president's bodyguards all stopped their attacks and turned to look east. 

'Oh no,' thought Cloud. 'The other SOLDIERS are coming!' 

He looked around, there had to be a way out! They were surrounded by rubble so that the two groups of SOLDIERS were blocking the only paths away. Cloud rubbed the green 'EXIT' materia in his sword, but realised that even that couldn't help him and Tifa in this situation. 

"Cloud," whispered Tifa. The look of anxiety on her face showed that she was probably thinking along similar lines. "I can only see one easy way out of this mess…surrender." 

"What are you thinking, they'd lock us up again. More carefully this time!" 

Tifa patiently tried to explain her plan to Cloud. "Listen, if Cait Sith really is the president of Shinra, that squad of SOLDIERS arriving behind us will take us to him. Cait will be able to free us, all we have to worry about is this other president of Shinra." 

Cloud didn't have long to think about it as the SOLDIERS who had been chasing them stopped near to them. "SURRENDER NOW OR WE WILL KILL YOU!" shouted their leader. 

Cloud looked at Tifa; she already had her hands in the air. Grudgingly Cloud raised his hands too and dropped his Ultima weapon. "NOW DROP ALL OF YOU MATERIA, WHERE I CAN SEE IT!" 

Cloud saw Tifa drop all of the coloured balls onto the floor in front of her, he thought about a way to try and hide some but was ordered to hurry up by the SOLDIERS' leader. He dropped the few pieces of materia he had borrowed from Tifa onto the ground in a small glowing pile. 

"Thank you for you co-operation." The SOLDIERS were uneasy. No one had ever heard of Cloud Strife giving up since he had achieved legendary power through his weapons and materia. The leader then waved his gun at the other people standing by the central pillar of Midgar. "Who are you?" he asked. 

Saldana looked at the SOLDIER with a bemused look on his face. "I am the president of the Shinra Corporation, if you are SOLDIERS then you now take orders from me." 

The SOLDIERS by Saldana's side stepped forwards again, but the other SOLDIERS still looked unconvinced. "You'd better come with us if those are your ideas, and explain yourself to the real president of Shinra." 

Saldana was taken aback momentarily. So Shinra had surveyed the onslaught of meteor, but who was it that now ran the company? Whoever it was Saldana had to outrank them, he was the highest-ranking official to survive until the doors of the bunker were closed. 

"Who is this other president? I assure you that I outrank them." 

The leader of the squad glared at the party in front of him. Many of the faces were familiar; he had seen these people before. "The president is Reeve," he said slowly. 

The other president of Shinra scowled. "REEVE?" he exclaimed. "Reeve was arrested for crimes against Shinra shortly after weapon attacked the city. In these records are a list of his crimes and evidence of them. He is no member of Shinra, I am the real rightful president!" 

Cloud watched this interchange with a growing sense of worry. Perhaps Cait Sith was not going to be able to get them out of this one after all. As the leaders talked some of the other SOLDIERS handcuffed Cloud and Tifa's hands behind their backs. Cloud was now very worried, it would take a lot to save them now. 

As the now expanded party turned to walk to Neo-Midgar to meet Cait Sith, Mr Condra grabbed his president's attention. "Mr. President, we have done a quick scan of the area and found that the number 4 reactor is serviceable. May I have your permission to send a team to the reactor as soon as possible?" 

"Yes, let it be done. I want power as soon as possible." Saldana turned to his secretary. "Have you contacted Junon yet and explained the current situation?" 

"Yes sir. The secretaries in Junon have sent an order for the arrest of Reeve to the SOLDIERS in Midgar. Um, they also gave the news that it is not actually Reeve present in Midgar, but the creature he used to spy on the terrorist group AVALANCHE." 

"It is of little consequence. The creature will be destroyed and Reeve stripped of all his power. Then I will lead Shinra back to glory!" 

Cloud grimaced at the presidents laughter, it hurt his ears more then Rufus's. At least it was better then Heidegher's. He experimented by trying to slip his hands out of his handcuffs, but only succeeded in making his wrists sore. Shinra seemed to know what they were doing, and that was always a bad thing. 'Where are the others?' he thought. 'It's going to take an army to save us now, we can't rely on another Sephiroth appearing.' 

~ ~ ~

Iona caught up with Cait Sith an hour after her last meeting with him. She had bargained her way past the guards and was now face to face with the cat. 

"Mr. President," she began. "As you mentioned earlier that you plan to leave Neo-Midgar when the rescue operation has finished and that you plan not to allow us to use the reactors, could we please have some materia. Our defences are lacking and we are vulnerable to raiders. We appreciate your help but we need to be self-sufficient and able to protect ourselves when you leave. We don't want a repeat of the tragedy of last night." 

The Cat thought for a moment, then got onto the stuffed moogle and began to hop around the room, trying to look serious and thoughtful but looking ridiculous as always. 

"Well, (hop) we could donate (hop) some of our (hop) spare materia (hop) to you (hop). We would however (hop) ask you to remember (hop) all of this generosity (hop) and repay us sometime (hop) if we ever need your help (hop) or compliance." He had travelled around in a circle and was facing Iona again. "Do I make myself clear, Shinra could do with some allies." 

"Thank you president Sith." 

Cait nodded to her and began to write a note. "Hand this to the supplies people and they will give your group some materia. We don't have much materia to spare and it is valuable so remember this." Iona bowed and left. 

She was happy that the new Shinra were much nicer then the old corporation and willing to help, but she couldn't shake off her distrust for the company which had caused her problems in the past. 

"Iona!" 

She looked towards the voice and saw Jess running towards her. "Iona, you're alright! I'm glad I've found you." 

Iona tried to calm the excitable girl down, but she kept on asking questions. "What happened here last night, where did all these Shinra people come from?" 

"I guess I've got a lot to tell you, come with me. You can help me carry the materia I'm collecting." 

The pair walked over to one of the Shinra trucks that had just pulled into the town. 

~ ~ ~

Nanaki stood at the front of the ship as it cut through the water. There was a breeze behind them and it was pushing the flotilla of boats towards Midgar faster then expected. The leading boat was similar to the one Nanaki remembered he and his friends had stowed away on during their first voyage to Costa Del Sol. Now it was carrying supplies and trucks, heading towards Midgar to help any survivors. Contact had not been made with anyone on the other side of the Ocean yet. Junon was still not responding and neither was Midgar. The fleet was now heading towards the coast where the trucks could be unloaded nearest to Midgar. 

Nanaki looked over the sea and could see the thin sliver of the approaching coastline. Usually the sky over it would be dark, but the cloud which perpetually hung over Midgar had dissipated and the sky was clear. 

The people of Cosmo Canyon had moved quickly when Nanaki had explained the situation to them. Supplies were quickly loaded onto trucks and driven over to Costa Del Sol. There Nanaki had encountered Vincent again. Vincent had done a very efficient job of motivating the locals to prepare the boats to sail. There he had heard that Cid was going to fly his supplies over to Midgar and that so was Barret. The two teams then merged and here they were. 

Vincent was below the deck, keeping out of the sun. It was a hot day but the breeze kept Nanaki cool. As he watched the horizon he heard a distant roaring noise. Turning around he saw what he expected to see, on the other horizon a number of black dots in the sky. 'That has to be Cid and Barret,' he thought. 

"Hey Nanaki." He turned again, this time to face the bridge. One of the people he had brought with him from Cosmo Canyon was standing there. He went on. "There's a Cid Highwind on the PHS for you, do you want to talk?" 

Nanaki walked over to the bridge and tried to hold the phone in his paws. After some fumbling he got it into a position on the control panel on the bridge so that his head was laying on it comfortably. 

"Hi Cid," 

__

"Ah, good to hear your voice my four legged friend." 

"Er, thanks Cid. So how is your team doing? We should be on the coast in a few hours." 

__

"Yeah, well we'll be in Midgar in a few hours. Our fleet is going a little slowly as we have a few blimps with us." 

Nanaki asked a sailor for a pair of binoculars to be held for him, when he looked through them he could see the various aircraft more clearly. There was a wide variety from small biplanes to huge blimps and even a few modern aircraft. 

"I see you Cid," added Nanaki down the phone afterwards. "Have you heard any word from Yuffie yet. I don't know if we can rely on any help from Wutai." 

__

"Nah, I've heard nothing from the girl since she fell over her $%*&ing chocobo. Well, we'll see you in Midgar. I'm glad I'm on one of these modern ships, my one's a bit like the Highwind. We found it in Rocket town where a few of the military had flown for the end of the world. Heh, those blimps are really slowing up down. Of course I won't fly one, as I wouldn't be allowed to smoke. Well, see ya." 

The line went dead and Nanaki began to walk out of the bridge when one of the radio receivers began to crackle into life. 

__

"Calling all Costa Del Sol ships. Do you read us? This is Sea control in Junon, what is your purpose and destination?" 

Nanaki rushed over and put a paw on the reply button. "We're a rescue party from the other continent. We're heading to Midgar to help the survivors." 

There was a brief moment filled only with static from the radio link. _"Proceed, there is already a sizeable Shinra rescue force in Midgar but your help will be appreciated. However you must prepare to have your equipment and vessels checked by Shinra officials before entering the restricted area of Midgar." _

The world began to spin slightly around him. Shinra had re-formed? This was not what he had been expecting. Nanaki cut the link. "Quick, get me a link to the other ships and the aircraft," he ordered his helper. "Oh, and call Vincent up here too please. I've got some important and worrying news to give everyone." 

~ ~ ~

The glow of a small swarm of fireflies lined the edge of the ornamental pond. The light of a paper lantern illuminated a small segment of the garden and allowed Yuffie to see what she was doing in the dead of night. The air was crisp and it was cool outside, but her mind was closed to the cold. Even in her small ninja outfit it did not bother her. 

She moved with sudden speed and there was a whirr of metal as her shriuken flew over the pond and stuck a mantis to the ground. 

Yuffie smiled, it was getting too easy. She needed to find new, more challenging training exercises if she wanted to improve further and protect her title well. 

The aid ships had left that evening, it would take a day or two for the airships to reach Midgar and a week at least for the boats. Godo had stayed in Wutai to help run the country, Yuffie had stayed behind in case she met Cloud and the others and they demanded their materia back. In their place general Wing-Tsit Chong had led the expedition. Yuffie had never liked him; the general was like a stricter, taller, thinner version of her father. Like Godo but without Godo's good points. 

Yuffie wondered how her old friends were getting on. Most of them should be arriving in Midgar soon, over there in Midgar it should be the early afternoon. 

"Yuffie, are you still up?" 

She almost lost her balance when her father's voice surprised her. "I'll be inside in a few minutes dad," she moaned. 

"Come on in Yuffie, I have a few things I need to tell you." 

Yuffie looked over at her father and wondered what he had on his mind. Suddenly she shivered as the cold finally got to her. "Okay." She ran around the pond to retrieve her Conformer and then sprinted into the house, trying to keep warm now that her concentration was broken. 

Godo was standing there waiting for her. "Daughter, I want to tell you of some of my plans for the future." 

Yuffie was now walking quickly to keep up with Godo as he strode deeper into the house. He continued. "When Shinra was destroyed some of the former employees flew here to Wutai, there were enough mako reactor engineers amongst them for us to get enough information to now build a mako reactor of our own." 

Yuffie couldn't believe what she was hearing. She knew what the reactors did to the planet and was of course now against their use. "Dad, you can't build one of those ugly things! You used to be against their use, you hated them when Shinra had them." 

"But Yuffie, times change and so must we. The reactors were what allowed Shinra to beat us in the war all those years ago. The reactors and their materia. That is why you set out to get all of this materia wasn't it?" 

Yuffie found her opinions conflicting. 

"If we built our own reactor," continued Godo. "We would have a cheap power supply which would make all of our lives better, and reactors can also be used to make materia." 

Yuffie clutched her head with her hands. What was more important to her: protecting the planet or her country? 

"But Wutai has no powerful enemies anymore," protested the girl. "Why do we need so much materia now anyway?" 

Godo shook his head. "You still have much to learn of the ways of the world my girl. There is a power vacuum in the world at the moment. If Wutai gains strength, we can fill it. If not then some other country will become dominant, the future will be our time Yuffie." 

"Yes, but…but…"

~ ~ ~

Iona and Jess had distributed the new materia to the officers. Jess had kept a Shiva summon while Iona had equipped a 'Steal' materia in her bracelet, thinking that she already had a powerful enough summon. 

Now they were looking around as the town was being repaired. "You can feel the enthusiasm in the air!" commented Jess. "Everyone knows what they are doing and are doing it." 

Iona smiled. Perhaps things would work out well after all. If Shinra were on her side, she wouldn't need materia. The future looked bright for once. 

"The sky isn't looking too good though," some dark clouds were building to the north. "Perhaps we should lend a hand building some shelters?" suggested Jess, however Iona wasn't listening. She was staring north; towards the centre of Midgar where a squad of SOLDIERS were approaching with a number of other people with them. She noticed that two of the people had their hands handcuffed. Jess saw the frown on her friend's face. 

"What's going on over there?" asked Iona. "I'm going to check it out." 

With that Iona sprinted over towards the new arrivals. "Wait for me!" cried Jess. 

Cait was reading some papers when one of his secretaries informed him of the president's arrival. 

"What do you mean?" 

"The new president of Shinra has arrived Cait." The secretary glared at him, but he followed her towards the waiting Saldana. 

Cait's first impression of Mr Saldana was not good. He had the posture of Rufus but a very different look to him. His hair reminded him of Sephiroth and Cait then realised that he knew who it was. Michael Saldana had been one of the top ranking Shinra executives, now he was one of the highest ranking 'old' Shinra members alive. 

Cait's gaze then turned to his friends and he was surprised to see that they were handcuffed. It was unlike Cloud to be captured. "What is going on here?" the cat asked. 

"Reeve, I am here to relieve you of your duties and place you under arrest, whatever form you may be in." 

The SOLDIERS surrounded Cait. "Wait, what is going on?" 

Cloud shouted out to Cait. "This guy wants Shinra, run. Everyone is already on his side!" 

Cait knew that his anti-mako ideas had made him very unpopular. If Michael had a plan already in action he could already be finished. The cat had forgotten what it was like in the backstabbing world of Shinra. Long ago, Reeve and Michael had been good friends. 

"I have evidence of your traitorous activities Reeve, you will now be executed for your crimes!" 

Cait looked around as various guns were raised around him. "If you move we will shoot you as you run, now face your destruction with dignity and walk up against that wall." 

The situation was bad. Cait knew that suddenly he had lost all of his power and was probably going to get shot. He needed a plan and fast! "Okay, I'll move." 

Saldana smiled. "We wanted to make you an example with a public execution but the effect wouldn't be the same with a stuffed toy, so we will avoid the risks and shoot you now. These two," he nodded towards Tifa and Cloud. "Will have the honour of having information extracted from them before their public demise. We do still need an example if we are to rule with fear." 

Tifa's eyes widened as she heard this. She had been in a gas chamber once before and did not want to repeat her experiences. 

Cait was now standing near to a wall of concrete that was still standing amidst the devastation. He turned to face the firing squad. "Well, it looks like this is it." The small cat was shaking. 

Iona and Jess were standing behind the group. "Why don't we do something!" exclaimed Jess. "This guy sounds like the old Shinra to me, we have to stop him!" 

Iona was not responding. She was staring at Michael Saldana. "I haven't seen that monster for three years," Jess was surprised by the venomous tone of Iona's voice. "He ruined my life. I've known some nasty people in Shinra in my time, but he is by far the worst. What you see of him is the nice side. What he does when no one else can see him is too terrible to mention." 

Jess was curious as to what Iona knew. "What do you have to do with Shinra?" 

"I…I don't want to talk about my past. Not yet, but I have an old score to settle with him. We have to hinder him somehow." 

Jess wondered what was going on, but had an idea. "Perhaps we could free the prisoners. If you go and free them and I round up the officers we can surround them and finish them off. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?" 

Iona thought about her summon for a moment. "I have a summon but I still feel too weak to use it. Perhaps I can steal something useful from one of the guards." 

They gave each other a few words of encouragement and split up. 

Cait Sith was scared. He had not been in such a situation before, except that then he realised that he had. His spare bodies had all been destroyed in Midgar so getting a new one would be difficult, unlike last time. 

"Ready!" 

Cait began to think harder. Was there another laboratory that might have held a spare body? Of course! The beta lab in Junon! 

"Aim!" 

If there was another body, could he be transferred into it? Last time Reeve had had to re-boot the Cait Sith system to use the second model. But what would it feel like. Would he be transferred with his memories or would he die and a new Cait Sith be created, if there was one?" 

The guns were all raised and aimed at the small cat. 

Then Michael Saldana gave the final command. 

"FIRE!" 


	6. Death Squad

Chapter 6 – Death squad

Chapter 6 – Death squad

__

Aeris floated through the lifestream, a solid personality amongst the mixture of souls. Her soul had held together for longer then all of the others because she was a Cetera, or rather half Cetera. 

She was free to sift through the knowledge of all those who had lived, searching for something which could help her friends against the impending menace she could feel. She also searched for the Promised Land, and the other Cetera, their souls had to be here somewhere, so why couldn't she find them? 

"…then the whole bridge collapsed…"

The voices of the recently dead could be made out amongst the background noise of the planet, Aeris listened in to thousands of lives, looking for clues. 

She had been looking for Hojo mostly. He would know everything about the Jenova project in all of its details. If she could find him before his soul was recycled she would have a considerable advantage. 

She knew now that Cloud and Sephiroth were not the only people that Hojo had altered with Jenova's cells. She had found others, failed tests and normal people who had been slightly influenced. When they died all of the traces of Jenova were washed out of their spirit and they were purified before they too dissolved and were recycled. 

"…this isn't a typical mission." 

Aeris paused. That last voice sounded so familiar, it also made her shudder. 

"Oh, that's right..."  
"You may visit your family and friends."

Could it be? 

"Out of my way. I'm going to see my mother." 

"...the Black Materia!"

Sephiroth?

~ ~ ~

As the assembled SOLDIERS prepared to fire Jess was running. She got to the centre of the settlement to find it as she had left it, although most of the Shinra rescue team were filing up towards the developing scene behind her. 

"EVERYONE!" she shouted. 

A few curious heads turned to look at her. "IONA NEEDS OUR HELP!" 

Quinn Vig jogged over to her. He vas very short compared to her but still looked more confident then she did as he approached. "Who are you, and what has happened to Iona?" 

Jess paused for a moment to catch her breath and push her hair back. "Iona isn't in immediate trouble as such, but we all have a crisis developing fast. I'll explain on the way, just pick up your weapons and materia and then follow me." 

The crowd looked bemused but Quinn told them to do as she said. 

As they got moving Jess asked Quinn, "why did you trust me so quickly?" 

He gave a quick smile and gave a reply as he equipped his materia. "I could tell by your tone of voice and the look in your eyes that you were telling the truth, and I would do anything to help Iona after the amount that she helped me." 

He ran a hand over his materia and watched it glow as the residents began to assemble. They were a roughly dressed militia, everyone was wearing rags, but they were still dangerous. "Come on," he urged. "Let's get moving!" 

~ ~ ~ 

In the meantime Iona herself had snuck up behind Tifa, with her sword ready. 

"Don't worry," she whispered, making Tifa jump slightly. "I'm here to help you. Just stay quiet." 

Tifa looked forwards as the SOLDIERS all clicked back their rifles at once. In the same moment Iona swung her sword around and broke Tifa's handcuffs. 

"Just stay there until things get messy, there may be a fight coming up." 

Tifa turned around to looks at her liberator. "Thanks," she whispered back. 

"No problem. Any enemy of Michael Saldana's is a friend of mine." 

Michael had gotten to "FIRE" when Iona started whispering to Cloud. Fortunately for her, something unexpected had happened. 

~ ~ ~

Cait decided at the last minute to make a last ditch attempt for freedom. He jumped behind his stuffed moogle just as the president shouted "FIRE." He held his paws over his ears as the multiple shots flew through the air where he had been standing moments before. Once they saw what he had done they aimed lower and Cait winced every time a bullet hit the moogle. 

The SOLDIERS were slowly tearing it to pieces. 

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" came the new command. Again Cait had to think fast. He could dimly hear new orders being given out. Slowly the crunch of approaching boots could be heard. The cat's mind was racing, he couldn't think clearly. He had a chance at resurrection but he still didn't want to die. 

Cautiously he peeked around the side of the crippled moogle he only had a fraction of a second to survey the scene before he was forced to jerk his head back under a rain of bullets. As he waited for the fresh onslaught to end he thought about what he had seen. 

The makeshift death squad was still standing in a line, ready to shoot anything that moved. They were SOLDIERS and Cait knew that he had been very lucky so far; they rarely miss. Cait had also seen the lone SOLDIER walking towards his hiding place from the side, obviously intending to flush him out without getting in the way of the other SOLDIERS. Behind all of them he had caught a fleeting glimpse of the new president of Shinra, arms folded impatiently, waiting for this to be over with. But he also saw something that filled him with hope. 

In the brief moment when he saw his captive friends Iona had cut Cloud's handcuffs with her sword. Cait knew that this mysterious new woman had to be an ally. If he could just stay alive for long enough they would have to make a break for it. If they didn't rescue him then, then he would have to run under whatever confusion they cause. Of course, Cloud wouldn't leave him there to die. Cait knew his friend better then that. 

The cat listened closely as the footsteps got louder, he needed more time! Desperately he tried to push himself into the soft fabric of the moogle, hoping it would swallow him up and out of sight, but found himself out of luck. 

Perhaps he could slow the approaching threat by showing himself again for a brief moment, encouraging another round of bullets. He gulped and decided to stick a paw out and back in again, hoping that he would be too quick for them again. 

Again Cait was unlucky; a bullet hit his paw immediately and caused his hand to explode! Cait couldn't feel the pain directly, it was suppressed by whatever program he was running on, but the loss registered to him. 

Now he was one limb less, and had only bought himself a few more seconds. He couldn't keep this up for long. 

Taking a few deep lungfuls of air he took a quick look at the situation again. He spotted the group approaching quickly from the town, his saviours if they could get to him in time. As he pulled his head back down, he realised his lucky escape again as a bullet flew through his right ear, leaving a hole but no critical damage. 

Cait thought he had to look in a very sorry state indeed now. He was covered in dirt from throwing himself on the ground repeatedly, missing a hand, shaking from fear and had a bullet hole in one ear. 

'Help me someone,' he thought as the shadow fell over him. 

Tifa saw the SOLDIER reach down to pick up Cait and couldn't stop herself from shouting out a warning. "Cait, run now!" 

She watched in horror as the cat sprinted into the open, only to be met with several accurate shots. His tiny body flew backwards and skidded to a halt on the dirty ground. Michael Saldana's attention had been attracted to her by her call, but his eyes locked with those of Iona's. 

"Men!" he shouted. "Seize her immediately!" 

He hadn't even mad sure Cait had been hit, he was confident in the abilities of his men. He knew what SOLDIER training was like, albeit second hand. 

The trio suddenly found themselves the targets of the line of SOLDIERS. 

The air between Iona and Michael seemed to shimmer as they gazed into each other's eyes. Iona's face was contorted into a grimace of hatred while Michael's face showed mostly surprise but he was also wearing a cruel grin. Iona forced herself to break her stare of pure hatred to quickly check on her approaching reinforcements. The president licked his lips quickly and then followed her glance. 

"Men, look ou-!" 

"DIAMOND DUST!" 

An icy breeze swept through the ranks of SOLDIERS, causing them to all turn to face Jess, the breeze ruffling her hair and causing her torn clothes to flap about, and with her hand held above her head where her red Shiva summon materia shone brightly. The younger SOLDIERS shivered while the older; battle veterans recognised what the young woman was doing. 

The sky darkened and a thin layer of ice began to form on the ground and rubble around the group. 

Michael watched his breath form a white cloud in front of him and braced himself for the inevitable. With a sudden crash, a block of ice rose from the ground in front of Jess, Shiva broke out of it and blew her dust forwards. The SOLDIERS held their positions as they were encased in ice that swiftly shattered. 

During the distraction Cloud and Tifa ran back to a safe position, but Iona held her gaze on the president and stood her ground. 

As Shiva disappeared the targets revealed themselves to still be holding their ground. The squad leader eyed the advancing group with worried eyes. 

"Sir! I strongly suggest we pull back and wait for reinforcements, we couldn't deal with this rabble without significant casualties." 

Michael gave one last look at Iona; she was advancing with her sword drawn. "Fine, let us regroup back at the entrance to the bunker." 

They gave a quick salute and the squad marched back the way they had come. Saldana left a remark for Iona. "I'll see you again soon my dear!" 

The rabble let loose a volley of spells after the retreating enemy, the air boiled as the spells mingled and conflicted, but the targets were always a little too far away. 

~ ~ ~

As the SOLDIERS led by president Saldana and the Neo-Midgar rabble lad by Iona left Cloud's field of vision he ran over to where Cait still lay. 

He kneeled down to get a good look at his fallen ally, another friend lost. He felt an anger he had not felt for a few days rising within him again. He was aware of Tifa as she walked over and sat next to him. "Can he be brought back again?" she asked. 

Cloud was about to answer when he saw movement in the torn and bloody cat. Cait looked a pathetic figure, lying on one side injured fatally. As the pair watched he rolled over onto his back to face them and tried to speak. 

"Cait!" exclaimed Cloud. "How bad is it?" 

Cloud knew from the look in Cait's only eye that it was no use. As the cat stopped moving he uttered a few words. "It's no good…I'm a gonner…but…I'll be back." 

Tifa's head slumped as the last energy left in the frail body dissipated. 

Then there was silence for a while, apart from the wind and the distant sound of bolt spells. 

Eventually Cloud stood up. "We should bury him here." It was a simple statement but Tifa understood. How could Cait Sith return? Reeve was missing and Midgar, where he was created, had been turned into ruins. 

"…And then there were seven," Tifa muttered below her breath. 

~ ~ ~

The SOLDIERS were surprised by the strength and ferocity of the mob. They seemed highly organised and their leader gave them obvious morale. The retreat had become a run and now the last SOLDIERS stood guarding the entrance to the Shinra bunker to keep the others safe as Iona approached. 

"Get out of my way!" she screamed. "I have no problems with you, let me in so that I can face him!" 

The guards kept their cool and professional SOLDIER faces, devoid of emotion. 

"No miss, I think that you will find that fighting us is useless. You will not get past us." 

The corridor was narrow and the security door behind them was sealed. They were sacrificing two SOLDIERS to give the others more time. 

"So be it." Iona narrowed her eyes and began to run towards the waiting SOLDIERS when the ground began to shake. "Wha-?" 

She was thrown of balance and stumbled to a stop. The world became a wall of noise, dust and heat. Through smoke that was pouring from the ground Iona could make out the shape of a tower rising out of the ground quickly. It had been rising out of an area near to where the bunker had to be located. 

The heat, noise and smoke became more unbearable until Iona realised what was happening. The Shinra executives were escaping in an underground rocket! 

The Shinra no. 27 rose into the air steadily, an extravagant escape vehicle carrying an unknown number of people and equipment up into the sky. 

When it was high enough for speech to be heard, one of the SOLDIERS shouted to Iona. "While this has been going on, the rest of the SOLDIERS and other Shinra military personnel have been gathering behind you. Now you are the ones who are trapped. If you give up now, Mr Saldana has said he will be especially lenient with you Miss Iona." 

Iona wanted to strike them down but realised that her fight was pointless. It was over already. She collapsed onto the ground clutching her head, then slowly rose. She could already see some of the SOLDIERS in the distance, blocking off the only path back to the town. "So do we surrender or go down fighting?" 

~ ~ ~

Cloud and Tifa were hiding together under a sheet of corrugated metal which had fallen at an angle so that it gave them protection from the eyes of the newly arriving SOLDIERS. Already there were more of them then before, but they were also with others and people were constantly arriving. 

They could hear conversations going on and had worked out that the remaining population of Neo-Midgar had been rounded up and were being watched over. The military were ready for a battle but were hoping for a peaceful resolution to the problem. 

"Damn Shinra!" whispered Cloud. "They kill Cait and now their rescue teams are doing more harm then good!" 

"We need some sort of miracle to save us now," added Tifa. "We can't hide forever." 

As the rocket was lost in the blue of the sky the dark clouds loomed closer, the black trail of the rising rocket was lost against the dark background. 

As they watched and waited the SOLDIERS equipped themselves and were almost ready to move onwards when a new hum in the air caught their attention. 


End file.
